“Most of it does,” said Jack. “Some of it ends up becoming razors, tools, daggers like mine, or even swords for people like Captain Mattice or Sir Kevin. Still, the Duke has to make sure there’s enough iron to make nails for ships, but whoever finds the iron for it gets a hefty payment. That’s why so many people look for bog iron in the marshes. If we found a whole mine full of iron, we could retire in comfort. Hey, what’s this?” He bent to pick up something from the ground. “Will, bring the torch here. Hey guys, look at this.” They all leaned their heads in to look at the small object in his hand. “It looks like a squished coin.”
Maya took the object and rubbed it, then smelled her thumb. “It definitely has copper or iron in it. I’m guessing copper from the color, but it’s hard to tell in the torchlight.”
“I wonder who would come all the way out here to squish pennies?” asked Jack.
“Don’t be silly,” said Rachel. “It’s probably left over from whatever tools they used to dig this tunnel.”
“But who, and how long ago?” asked William. “The last expeditions from Marshland Crossing were before I was born.”
“Maybe even before Rachel was born,” said Jack. “‘Grownups’, she says. Ouch!”
It was hard to tell how straight the tunnel was with just the two torches, but they continued to follow it for longer than William could estimate. After a while he thought he heard something other than their footsteps; not loud, but consistent. He paused to listen, and when Charlie turned around to see who had stopped it became obvious what the noise was: Charlie’s teeth were chattering from fear. William did his best to keep the look of disgust from his face, not wanting to make Charlie feel worse than he already did, but William knew they would be in perpetual night until they found a way out, and he wasn’t sure how effective a defender Charlie might be in his condition. True, Charlie had fought off the wolves in the dark back at the cave, but they’d had torches then. They couldn’t waste their few remaining torches to keep their sworn defender from wetting his pants. Meanwhile, he was still a significant drain on what little food they had left.
Food! William hadn’t even considered not being able to hunt down here. There might be some sort of animals hiding down here, but would they be safe to eat? If not, then they were out of luck, because what sort of plants could they hope to find? Not for the first time William questioned what he had gotten himself into. Sure, he had wanted adventures. He had wanted glory. But neither of those could be earned without great risk, and right now William would have traded all the glory in the world to be back at the Library holding Melissa’s hand. But forget glory: what about the river? That was the real reason they were here. He realized now the truth of something his father had told him years ago, that glory was just the side effect of fulfilling a mission. “The job has to be done, William. And the job has been given to me. No matter what, it must be finished. You must never run or hide from your duties. That is the true source of honor.”
Would Orrin Whitehall have led this group into such a sorry situation? Would Sir Kevin have stood his ground and fought off the bandits, or would he have run and hidden like William had done? Never had William’s self-doubt haunted him as it did right now, here in the nearly complete darkness, with nothing but a few torches and some morsels of food between them and a tragic end. He wondered if maybe the darkness was affecting him. Not the same as Charlie, of course, but in a more subtle way. If so, then maybe the others were having moral crises of their own too. He would have to deal with that, somehow.
“This is actually kind of fun,” said Maya, her voice echoing oddly along the stone walls of the tunnel. “A little dirty, but still fun.”
Rachel nodded. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“I wish we had more light, though,” said Jack. “Who knows what we’re missing in the dark.”
William sighed. So it was just him. Charlie too, but that concerned him less right now. As a leader, at least in name, it was his job to keep the group safe and effective. How could he do that if he couldn’t keep his own spirits up? “Come on, Willie Whitehands,” he said to himself. “You’re in pain, you’re hungry, and you’re almost out of food. Your main defender is scared of the dark. Your best friend is undermining your authority, and you have no idea where you are. And you still don’t know how the poison is getting into the river. Cheer up: there’s no way things can get worse.”
They came to a crossroads. The way forward ended, leaving them only left or right as their choices. Perfect, thought William. Another decision to screw up. As the others waited, he looked as far as he could in each direction. The air from the left was cooler; he pointed that way, hoping it might lead to an exit.
He soon lagged behind again, weighed down by his gloomy mood and the constant aching of his leg. He recalled the time when blisters were the worst of his worries. The thought almost made him laugh out loud.
Ahead of him, the others had stopped. As he caught up, he saw why. Gone in an instant were pain, hunger, and self-pity. In their place a primal urge welled up, one that screamed for him to turn and run. The fur on Steve’s neck stood on end as he let out a low, deep growl. Maya slowly edged her way behind Charlie, and Rachel pulled an arrow from her quiver, her shaking hand barely able to nock it. William drew his sword and heard Jack do the same with his dagger. None of it seemed sufficient. It would never be enough. Because ahead, perfectly framed by the torchlight, stood a beast that William had read about often enough, but would never have dreamed he would encounter.
It was a dragon.
A surprisingly large and diverse collection of fiction from Earth survives, albeit not in its original form. The Colonists, being highly educated even for the time, counted books among their most prized possessions, and even with the rushed nature of the Arrival there were few families who didn’t count among their belongings at least a few volumes of fiction.
Early on, large efforts were made to catalog and copy every title for the sake of posterity. Copies of these works still exist today in both Libraries and in private collections across both continents.
Planet of Hope: A History of Esperanza
At least it looked like a dragon. William had only ever seen drawings, and even those were only copies of copies of books from Earth depicting imaginary creatures. True, those pictures showed creatures with the same long toothy snouts, scales for skin, lethal talons and long, flexible tails. Not to mention fierce countenance. It even appeared to have wings, although they remained close to its body.
But it differed from illustrations in one major factor: this one was real. And it didn’t look happy at their unexpected appearance in what must be its territory. It stood no taller than Steve at its shoulder, but was twice as broad. The torchlight glinted off a ridge of scales lining its spine, adding to its menacing appearance. It charged toward the group, wings spread, sending them scrambling backward, then slowly retreated, maintaining its gaze on them. Again it charged, and Maya screamed as she jumped behind Charlie. She kept on screaming after it backed off again, or so William thought: he soon realized the dragon was making the noise. The high-pitched whistle lasted nearly a minute, as the dragon continued to charge and retreat, as though trying to scare them off or hold them at bay.
“Will,” said Jack.
“Yeah,” said William.
“Is that a dragon?”
William nodded. “It sure looks like a dragon.”
“One problem.”
“Only one problem?”
“Dragons don’t exist, Will.”
“Try telling it that. Then maybe it’ll go away.”
“Can we just agree to call it a dragon?” said Rachel. “Maybe then we can focus on not getting eaten.”
“Whatever it is, it’s too small to eat all of us,” said Jack.
“I don’t care about its appetite, Jack!” said Rachel. “I’m worried about being on the menu in the first place.”
“Can you shoot it, Rachel?” asked William.
She shook her head. “It didn’t even notice. I think those scales are metal.”
“Squished pennies,” said Charlie. “That’s what the squished pennies are. Dragon scales.”
“What do we do, Will?” asked Jack.
William looked around at the faces of his companions; they were as shocked and dumbfounded as he was. He gulped and said, “I’m open to suggestions.”
Maya’s look changed from shock to horror, and Charlie pointed. The frame of a much taller, bulkier dragon emerged from the gloom, its wings filling the width of the tunnel. A second followed behind it. The whistling had been an alarm, not a challenge.
Jack yelled, “I suggest we run!”
They scrambled back to the crossroads, William lagging behind. As he limped up to the others he pointed straight ahead, past the dead end tunnel they had come from; they may as well try the unknown since there was no exit the other way. William checked over his shoulder; the smaller one was keeping up without trouble, but the larger ones could not match their pace. The ground shook as the monstrous beasts pursued them.
Jack stopped at a small fissure in the rock wall. “Here,” he said, gesturing for the others to enter. Charlie squeezed through last, and he turned and jabbed his spear at the little dragon that snapped at him. The dragon scurried back as the two giant ones arrived on its heels. William got a better look at them before Jack yanked him further into the fissure; they were darker than the little one, almost black, but with a slight shine. Perhaps Rachel was right about the scales being metallic. It was too dark to be certain, but the smaller one looked copper-colored. He contemplated how luck had cheated them the last time they squeezed between rocks. What was the old saying about a rock and hard place? By his own count, they were between a mountain of rocks and all the hard places on Esper.
Maya leaned against the rock wall, her eyes unfocused and wide with fear. “Dragons,” she said through her fingers. “This can’t be happening.” Rachel wrapped her arm around Maya to comfort her, but Rachel’s face bore the same traumatic look. Jack sat with his back against the rock wall and stared at the dusty floor, rocking back and forth. Charlie stood in the middle of the little space shuffling his feet, looking at nothing. Poor Steve slunk as far back into the wall as he could and whimpered. William knew the group was ready to fall to pieces at any moment. The shock of coming face to face with a mythical creature could push a person to the edge of sanity, but being hunted by it might drive them into madness.
He had to do something, and he had to do it right away, or no one would be of any use if they ever got an opportunity to escape. He looked at each person to gauge how much they had left, to assign them some sort of challenge to get their minds working again. “Rachel,” he said with as much calmness and authority as he could muster. “How many torches left?”
“Uh…four, I think.” William waited. Rachel opened her bag and counted. “Four,” she said.
“Good. Be ready to light the next one when that one dies. Maya, did you get a good look at those dragons?”
“I think so, yes.” She was unsure, but she didn’t want to show it. That suited William just fine.
“Think of ways they might be vulnerable. No beast can defend itself against everything, right Rachel?”
Rachel nodded. “In theory, but—”
“Help Maya with those theories.”
“But—”
“I don’t care if they’re good ideas, just get me some ideas. Jack. You’re the sneakiest person I know.”
“Thanks much, pal,” said Jack as he looked up from his daze.
“I need you to get as close as possible and see what you can see. If they spot you, get back right away. But find out something I don’t already know.”
“You mean about girls, right?”
“Yeah, Jack. That’s exactly what I mean.” Good old Jack. He’d seen through his plan, and was going along with it anyway. It felt good that he could trust him with something this important, and he hoped beyond all hope he wasn’t sending his best friend to a nasty death. Which gave him an idea. “Charlie, if Jack has to beat a retreat, I want you there to defend him. You’re the only one who can handle that spear, and that’s the only weapon we have that might stand a chance.” The big man nodded. William drew close so no one else would hear. “You’ll be a little distance from the torch.”
“I know,” said Charlie.
“You know what I’m talking about, right?”
He nodded again. “I’ll be okay with Jack there.”
William squeezed his shoulder. “Shout if you need me. I’ll be there as fast as one leg can bring me.” As Jack and Charlie receded into the darkness, William sat beside Rachel and Maya who were already deep in conversation. He listened instead of joining in, knowing he couldn’t match what either of them knew about animals, or science, or pretty much anything else.
“Any animal can be crushed,” Maya said. “You’re thinking in terms of hunting, or killing. We have to think of ways they might die, even by accident.”
“Oh, I see what you mean,” said Rachel. “If we caused a cave-in, or something like that, they might be buried under the rock.”
“And bonus points for blocking the path for the other dragons,” said Maya, her voice rising with excitement.
“Okay,” said Rachel. “They are big, strong, and probably heavy if they have metal scales. What weakness does that imply?”
“I bet falling hurts them.”
“Of course! ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’. That’s perfect.”
“Also, I doubt they can swim,” said Maya.
William let the women discuss options. Their ideas were brilliant, and could even work given the right resources. But good ideas without means of implementing them were no better than bad ideas…but he decided to keep that to himself. He hadn’t given them this project in order to find solutions, but to occupy their minds. On that alone he had succeeded.
They were interrupted by a thunderous roar followed by shouting, and the sound of Jack and Charlie scrambling back. An orange glow erupted behind them as they emerged into the torchlight. “Well,” said Jack, catching his breath. “We had mixed results.”
“You both made it back. I call that good results. What did you learn?” asked William.
“I have a plan. Okay, so you know how dragons are always supposed to be guarding treasure? Like in the stories, I mean. Well, here’s my plan: all we have to do is kill all the dragons, find the treasure, look for a way out, and then we’ll all be rich!”
William rolled his eyes. “Jack, just tell me what you saw.”
“We’re pinned in. Unless we can find a way through solid rock, there’s no way to escape without passing them. They have four of those giant black ones posted outside, two in each direction. I got almost all the way past in one direction, but they spotted me.”
“You went out into the tunnel?” asked William. “Why would you take a risk like that?”
“No risk, no reward. You wanted information, remember? Anyway, I got back in, and one of the big ones tried to follow me but it couldn’t squeeze through. Their armor doesn’t bend.”
“Good to know,” said Rachel.
“So I stood there watching it try to jam itself through the hole. It backed away, and the little one took over and managed to get in and take a swipe at me. Don’t look so alarmed, Will; I’m in one piece, aren’t I? Anyway, Charlie gave it a good poke, and we came back as fast as we could. It didn’t follow us. You know, I’d say the small one is just as afraid of us…what do you think, Charlie?” Charlie nodded.
“And the orange glow?” William asked.
“I didn’t see what made it. I was running away from them,” said Jack.
“It
felt hot,” said Charlie.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” said Rachel. “The little one…or ones…can get in, but are afraid of us. The big ones aren’t afraid of us, but they can’t get in. And at least one of them breathes fire?”
“Yep,” said Jack.
“A standoff. Fantastic,” said Rachel.
“So now what do we do?” asked Maya.
All eyes turned to William. He had nothing, but saying nothing wasn’t an option. He had to improvise until a better plan came along. “We’ll set a watch to stop any attacks from little dragons. We’ll make the food, water and torches last as long as possible. Then we try to think of something.”
It wasn’t a great plan. In fact, it was terrible. But they had nothing else until circumstances changed or someone had an idea. William set overlapping two-person watches, excluding Maya. The last thing they needed was for one of them to fall asleep and let one of the smaller dragons get in. They kept busy, piling loose rock near the entrance as a blockade, but it was obvious from the start that it served more as a psychological diversion than a physical defense. He wondered whether they were wasting energy, but then he remembered the torches were probably going to run out before the food. If only they had a few logs for a fire, then they wouldn’t be limited by the few torches they had left. Then again, that would just delay the inevitable.
William preferred his time on watch. He hadn’t given up on finding a plan, but the discussions were taxing. Once again he questioned his leadership qualities given that he favored being closer to danger over exchanging ideas with his colleagues, but he had reached a point where he just couldn’t feel worse about himself than he already did. His decisions had brought them to this hopeless situation; why should he inflict more bad decisions on them? He chuckled to himself when he realized simple coin flips would probably have led to better results.
At least the others were busy thinking of ideas and arguing with each other—all but Charlie, that is. True, he hadn’t been brought for his brains, but it would be nice to get a contribution from him once in a while. Rachel came and relieved Jack, who was eager to leave William to his dark mood and join what he called the “fun group”. Rachel sat on the pile of rocks with her back to the entrance, ignoring the potential danger. The dragons had long since given up sending forays into the side tunnel, likely expecting the humans would eventually succumb to hunger.
The Defender of Rebel Falls: A Medieval Science Fiction Adventure (The William Whitehall Adventures Book 1) Page 13